World Painted Blood is the eleventh studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer. It was released through American Recordings and Sony Music on November 3, 2009 and was produced by Greg Fidelman and executively produced by Rick Rubin. It is the band's only album produced by Greg Fidelman. With much anticipation for the album after 2006's Christ Illusion, members of Slayer were revealing information about the album since early 2009. There were four different artworks released for the album, each which completed one-fourth of a map, that when put together, illustrates the earth painted with red. There are eleven Read more on Last.fm.
Slayer has always retained a basic formula for creating their music. That is, they embrace the punk element of thrash in a manner that Metallica at their heaviest never did. Much like ACDC has accomplished with their trademark brand of hook laden hard rock, Slayers greatest strength is that they rarely deviate from their style of playing.
The notable excursions from their tried and true sound have been both questionable and classic. 1988’s South Of Heaven was a poor attempt at sludge metal riffing and shotty vocal attempts at melody. Their 1998 “nu-metal” outing, Diabolous In Musica was a surprisingly limber attack on the more radio friendly metal bands. 2001’s gritty, overly offensive God Hates Us All was relentless, though devoid of the groups inherently existant thrash hooks.
2009’s World Painted Blood is exactly what it needs to be, a back to basics, balls to the wall, middle finger extended Slayer record. Gone are the experimental bass lines, the flirtations with an Anthrax like chug and the attempts at extended length. In their place, crushing, brutal riffs are kept alive by Dave Lombardos almost Norwegian drum aesthetic. In delightful form, Jeff Hanneman is back to writing the lions share of the riffs, keeping Kerry King’s accomplished but occasionally turgid riff o rama in check. Tom Araya’s piercing screech is back on track after sounding somewhat tired on 2006’s forgettable Christ Illusion.
The songs are brief and harrowing, easily on par with Reign In Blood and Seasons In The Abyss as far as track for track quality. On the blistering title track, a typically evil Slayer intro slides oh so comfortably into a monsterous barrage of chugga-chugga riffing ontop of Arayas articulated bellow, this time sounding just as pissed as he did in 1986. The Kerry King numbers, “Hate Worldwide” and “Not Of This God” are fast, hook laden and memorable, though is atheist diatribes tend to get old, especially in light of Hanneman and Arayas powerful lyrics concerning war and serial killer related characters. The sobering “Playing With Dolls” is the standout track, a slow burner that builds to a classic Slayer breakdown and manages to rival Araya’s best singing attempts. Also of note is Kings political massacre, “Americon”, both a musically satisfying venture and a welcome change in lyrical message.
World Painted Blood has the grit, the anger and the sheer dexterity required to elevate Slayers visibility in the rather saturated metal market. The album’s greatest accomplishment is that each song could be played live to decent fanfare. The riffs are up the par, the lyrics are fairly diverse and the legacy is intact. Honestly, Slayer could end tomorrow and this would be sufficient as a final statement.